SurLaLune Fairy Tales

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Call for Help: Beauty and the Beast Submissions

Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World will be released later this year, and I am finalizing the content. While the book is dominated by ATU 425: The Search for the Lost Husband and its subtypes, including Beauty and the Beast, Cupid and Psyche, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, there will be other Animal Bridegroom tales within it. With little or no exception there will not be Animal Brides. There just isn't book space or time for those. (But they are tempting. Fascinating stuff, these animal spouses. Perhaps someday... And a Swan Maiden collection is in my future whether or not it expands to all Animal Brides.)

If you offer a tale that I haven't discovered yet and that I use in the collection, I will send you a copy of the book when it is released. Those of you well-read in the folklore of other countries will have a greater chance at suggesting something that has eluded me so far. The more obscure the collection, the better. Grimms and such need not apply! And, no, the tale need not be in English.

If you submit a tale and I already have it, I will add your name to a list for a drawing of a copy of the book when it is released. And, yes, you are guessing at this point because my list is much more extensive than any list on the web, including my own. I have found some unusual and rare ones! This is going to be a fun collection for all of us. I have been working on it for years. I tell my family and friends that while Cinderella is the most popular fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast is perhaps the most beloved. It always wins the "What is your favorite fairy tale?" question. It is mine, too, so despite myself there is extra love going into this one. All of my collections receive my devotion, but this one is special to me, too.

Please submit the tale, the source, and even an online link if one is available, through a comment to this post or a private email to me.

9 comments:

A friend of mine told me about several monkey-themed folktales from India that she had read while abroad. Many of them end in an animal marriage to a human girl. I found this site with the story, although I can only say that I've heard the first one before: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/monkey.html#monkeyboy

Because the story was so easy for me to find, it is probably more well-known than I expected. But I thought I might as well give it chance!

As a ballad, it might be outside the realm of what you're including in this book, but have you considered Tam Lin? tam-lin.org has many variations of the ballad here: http://www.tam-lin.org/tamlin1.html

I also know of a tale from Scotland called "The Grayhound and the Green Girl" Which I believe comes from The Lure of the Kelpie: Fairy and Folk Fales of the Highlands, by Helen Drever. Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1937. The tale often winds up on the internet--without a source. Here's a link to the tale itself: http://www.scottish-gatherings.50megs.com/page126.html

I'm guessing you may already have this, but in an old Deluxe Golden Book called simply "The Fairy Tale Book," there's quite a few animal bridegroom stories (longer versions of most of them can of course be found in Zipes' Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantments, like the Royal Ram, The Green Snake, etc.).

*But* that book also has an interesting East of the Sun, West of the Moon variant, credited only as "from the Russian," called Finn, the Keen Falcon. That story has elements of Cinderella and D'Aulnoy's Blue Bird, too. I've never seen it anywhere besides this book...hope this helps! :)

A reprint of the book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Book-Fairy-Tales-Classics/dp/030717025X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357632196&sr=1-1&keywords=golden+book+the+fairy+tale+book

As a side note, this is my first time posting, but thank you for all the research and wonderful stuff you've posted through the years. Your site was an excellent resource when I was writing my undergrad thesis...on Beauty and the Beast, of course! ;)

I always felt that the story of Ariadne and Theseus had some similarities to Beauty and the Beast.I did a post about it on my blog saying how Theseus, the Minotaur and Dionysus could all be considered as beast like. However, there was no searching for a lost husband, Ariadne simply seemed to have committed suicide, moved on to another husband or died in childbirth.